Cortisol and belly fat

[Momstermunch]

I keep reading about this and wondered what people's thoughts are? Specifically on the idea that high impact exercise can increase your cortisol levels and make your body hang on to belly fat.

I've always done a mix of strength and cardio. I like mixing it up and get a nice dose of endorphins from the cardio.

I definitely have a problem with belly fat too. Something I will continue to try to address through food by the way so I don't want tips there. Just wondering if I should drop the cardio as well?

Depends if you actually have belly fat or just the anatomically normal rounded belly that the vast majority of women have TBH.
Not to mention that if you are more mature your middle will naturally thicken somewhat as well.

As long as you are a healthy weight and doing some exercise to tone that area then Id just learn to love yourself, rather then give up something you enjoy!😉

Exercise will increase cortisol a bit but that's normal. As long as you fuel well before and after and get good recovery, the benefits for health, weight and body composition are huge and far outweigh the downsides. High intensity exercise like sprint interval training in particular is really important. Unaddressed life stress and inadequate sleep is much more of a problem as these drive up cortisol for no benefit.

You might find it helpful to listen to the Hit Play not Pause podcast episode on cortisol and exercise - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-menopausal-women-need-to-know-about-cortisol-with/id1533088916?i=1000625356164